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tgt
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Anything wrong with those meals? Provided only the salt reduced ones and ones with other healthy labels on it are bought. Dependent only on them is bad but how about one of them each day?
Next time you are in a store, read the lists of ingredients on some packages of "Healthy Choice" and "Lean Cuisine" meals. Then ask yourself if you want to put all that crap in your body.tgt said:Anything wrong with those meals? Provided only the salt reduced ones and ones with other healthy labels on it are bought. Dependent only on them is bad but how about one of them each day?
Well Michael Angelo's brand is relatively expensive. There are a few 'Organic' label brands that are relatively expensive aswell.Chemisttree said:An actual ingredient list (Michael Angelo's Chicken Parmesan)
chemisttree said:Water (yuck! Probably that flluoridated crap!)
http://www.dhmo.org/facts.htmlDihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is a colorless and odorless chemical compound, also referred to by some as Dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen Hydroxide, Hydronium Hydroxide, or simply Hydric acid. Its basis is the highly reactive hydroxyl radical, a species shown to mutate DNA, denature proteins, disrupt cell membranes, and chemically alter critical neurotransmitters. The atomic components of DHMO are found in a number of caustic, explosive and poisonous compounds such as Sulfuric Acid, Nitroglycerine and Ethyl Alcohol.
chemisttree said:Onions
And what's wrong with Ramen - they are a major part of the international jet set lifestyle of airline pilots (as well as grad students)Topher925 said:They are better for you than ramen,
For more on the essentials carried by airline pilots and instructions on the best way of cooking Ramen in a hotel coffee machine http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/01/19/askthepilot217/Jan. 19, 2007 | On Saturday, Jan. 6, the aviation world was rocked by tragic news.
Momofuku Ando died of a heart attack in Japan at age 96. Ando was the inventor of instant ramen noodles.
"Organic", "Healthy", "Low-fat", "Low-sodium" etc are slathered all over the labels of these processed foods. Read a bit more closely, and see how many times "high-fructose corn syrup", "modified food starch", "autolyzed yeast", "spice extract", etc show up. Also, salt is often mentioned several times in connection with the main ingredients, sauces, etc. I don't ever remember my mother or grandmother reaching for "high-fructose corn syrup" or "autolyzed yeast" when making meals for our family.TheStatutoryApe said:Well Michael Angelo's brand is relatively expensive. There are a few 'Organic' label brands that are relatively expensive aswell.
turbo-1 said:How hard is it to make simple dishes and freeze up portions to take for lunch? If you are a student living in a dorm, there could be difficulties, but if you have an apartment with a kitchenette, it's pretty easy to make salads, rice, beans, potatoes, vegetables, etc. It's not that tough to buy some decent bread (if you don't like baking) and team that up with some cheese, apples, mustard, etc for a nice light lunch.
When I was in college, I would plan my meals a week at a time, and make big batches of baked beans, lentil soup, spaghetti, whole-wheat bread, stews, etc, with the intent of making meals of the hot stuff for breakfast and supper, with light lunches of sandwiches, fruit, cheese that I could lug in a back-pack. It's not hard to do, once you get the hang of it, and the light, cold lunch was really handy. I attended college before microwaves were available, so there was a bit of a wrinkle that you won't have to deal with.tgt said:The main problem lies in myself eating too much when I cook. Hence it would be really hard to freeze portions because I'll probably eat it all in one go. Anyone else have this difficulty?
turbo-1 said:When I was in college, I would plan my meals a week at a time, and make big batches of baked beans, lentil soup, spaghetti, whole-wheat bread, stews, etc, with the intent of making meals of the hot stuff for breakfast and supper, with light lunches of sandwiches, fruit, cheese that I could lug in a back-pack. It's not hard to do, once you get the hang of it, and the light, cold lunch was really handy. I attended college before microwaves were available, so there was a bit of a wrinkle that you won't have to deal with.
Hmmmm... Munchies?junglebeast said:I tried that once, but I couldn't help from just eating the whole week's supply in the first 2 days. I made some good food for a while, though :)
junglebeast said:I tried that once, but I couldn't help from just eating the whole week's supply in the first 2 days. I made some good food for a while, though :)
tgt said:Exactly my problem. The hardest was right after cooking it when the portions are still warm. There is so much temptations to eat them now rather then save them for later.
Math Is Hard said:Same here. If I make a skillet of spaghetti I'll snarf down half of it right after it's done. Then the next day the cold leftovers don't look so good because I gorged on spaghetti the night before. Then the day after that, they are starting to look pretty old.. a week goes by.. never gets eaten.
The solution is already stated. Eat it all while it's hot. Are you not paying attention? :rofl:tgt said:How have you tried to solve this problem?
tgt said:The main problem lies in myself eating too much when I cook. Hence it would be really hard to freeze portions because I'll probably eat it all in one go. Anyone else have this difficulty?
turbo-1 said:Hmmmm... Munchies?
If you plan your meals and size them appropriately so that you don't get ravenous during the day, you should be able to control food-intake. You may be able to reduce intake by substituting foods that are satisfying (crunchy, good mouth-feel, etc) in some sensory metrics. Carrots are really cheap, crunchy, and full of fiber and vitamins. Celery is a bit more expensive, but still a nice low-cal snack. In season, Bing cherries, apples, and other fruits can be great snacks or even lunches. You don't have to have a hot meal 3x/day, or even a large meal. In college, I used to hunt down an immigrant whose parents were bakers, and buy a nice round loaf of bread every few days, until I decided to start baking my own. If you didn't track him down before about 10am, he'd be sold out. The bread was that good.
chemisttree said:...
Imported Parmesan cheese (milk, salt natural lactic cultures, rennet)
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DaveC426913 said:The solution is already stated. Eat it all while it's hot. Are you not paying attention? :rofl:
Moonbear said:Actually, freezing portions helps with controlling what you eat. It's the premise of most of those expensive diet plans that make you eat their food.
The best way to do it is not to just package up the leftovers from dinner (you can do that too, but if you wait for leftovers, you're more prone to overeat when the food is fresh). Instead, spend an afternoon cooking when it's NOT a meal time, and with the purpose of making your own single-serving meals. Cook up the food, put it in containers and straight to the freezer. Save one serving of something for dinner. Those TV dinners sold in the freezer section are really very expensive for what is in them.
I was thinking of something other than TV dinners, though, when you described "microwaveable packaged meals," though. SOME of the frozen TV dinners aren't that bad in terms of ingredients. Usually the big hazard is the sodium or fat content, not so much strange chemicals in the frozen ones. There are things in the canned food section that can be microwaved too, and they tend to have a lot more preservatives in them.
Think about what most TV dinners contain, though. Some sort of meat, like turkey, or chicken, or ground beef (salisbury steak or meatloaf), plus a fairly sugary vegetable like corn or peas, and mashed potatoes. You could roast up a chicken or meatloaf on the weekend, get a bag of frozen vegetables for the week (better to buy fresh, but frozen is okay if you don't find what you want in fresh), and make a big batch of mashed potatoes. Frozen vegetables with a little water added cook up quickly in a microwave, then just reheat the meat and potatoes. You know exactly how much butter or salt you've added that way. When you cook up your meat and potatoes, you can divide it right away into single meal containers. If you're a little hungrier one night, make some extra vegetable.
turbo-1 said:"Organic", "Healthy", "Low-fat", "Low-sodium" etc are slathered all over the labels of these processed foods. Read a bit more closely, and see how many times "high-fructose corn syrup", "modified food starch", "autolyzed yeast", "spice extract", etc show up. Also, salt is often mentioned several times in connection with the main ingredients, sauces, etc. I don't ever remember my mother or grandmother reaching for "high-fructose corn syrup" or "autolyzed yeast" when making meals for our family.
How hard is it to make simple dishes and freeze up portions to take for lunch? If you are a student living in a dorm, there could be difficulties, but if you have an apartment with a kitchenette, it's pretty easy to make salads, rice, beans, potatoes, vegetables, etc. It's not that tough to buy some decent bread (if you don't like baking) and team that up with some cheese, apples, mustard, etc for a nice light lunch.
tgt said:If for only one person then the economics isn't that bad. Yes, I was thinking about those TV dinners, not stuff in cans.
Try basmati rice, too. It has a nice nutty flavor and it tastes good warmed-over. If you haven't got one of the little Black and Decker food steamers, that's a really good investment - they cook rice perfectly, and steaming is a great way to heat up frozen vegetables without dissolving away nutrients in boiling water and wrecking the texture.TheStatutoryApe said:I usually make large batches of pasta but, as already noted, it gets old and boring pretty quickly. I tried red beans and rice but it tends to turn into a mushy brick after refrigeration. I'll have to try it with fresh beans instead of canned and maybe get some long grain rice instead of just using calrose.
This could have gone without saying. Everyone's here to offer their personal input. No one is claiming authority.maverick_starstrider said:No offense dude but you have to understand that different people are... different.
If one needs to lose weight through improving their diet, one will need to put some effort into changing one's lifestyle.maverick_starstrider said:To me that sounds like an exceptionally boring lifestyle, for you it may be extremely fullfilling.
There is no arguing that, for the most part, fresh produce is nutritionally better than processed, preserved produce.maverick_starstrider said:I've always been the type of person who ate whatever was convenient (including my share of microwaveble meals and ramen noodles) and I've always found these kind of 'good food' arguments from very assidous people to almost entirely hot air. The first assumption is that 'grandma's homestyle cooking' was some how transcendentally superior to food made in a cold corporate factory (this akin to the argument that chewing on willow bark is a better way to get rid of a head ache then popping an aspirin).
Ah. Hypocrisy. Your personal experiences are, of course, more valid than anyone else's.maverick_starstrider said:To all these assumptions I would say support them with actual evidence.
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I don't find home cooked meals to be inherently superior to store bought or take-out.
A totally separate and thus irrelevant issue. Did anyone claim that the kobe, ciabatti, honey mustard and tomato sauce were more expensive because they were healthier? You've demonstrated that you've missed the point.maverick_starstrider said:It reminds me of some of the expensive restaurants I've been to where they'll put kobe ground beef in a ciabatti bun topped with home made honey mustard and a tangy tomato sauce and charge you $50 and I find it's no better than the cheese burger I could have gotten at a local pub.
tgt said:How have you tried to solve this problem?
Ahaha, I really *do* eat like that.Math Is Hard said:I only cook about twice a year, so it's not too much of a problem. If I can't get food other people have prepared, like a frozen dinner or a meal from a restaurant, I tend to eat "things" rather than actual meals - a banana for breakfast, a can of peas for dinner. Whatever is available. I eat more or less like a raccoon.
Math Is Hard said:I only cook about twice a year, so it's not too much of a problem. If I can't get food other people have prepared, like a frozen dinner or a meal from a restaurant, I tend to eat "things" rather than actual meals - a banana for breakfast, a can of peas for dinner. Whatever is available. I eat more or less like a raccoon.
Evo said:Ahahaq, I really *do* eat like that.
TheStatutoryApe said:So if you ever get married you'll be looking for a well trained man-wife?
:shy: That would be me.Math Is Hard said:oh yes, you're worse than I am -- I seem to remember you survived on nothing but a spiral cut ham for two weeks.